Marijuana Business Magazine October 2018

We slowly introduce new concepts over time and optimize where we can get the most reach out of the content we're producing and sharing. He exposes the new hire to documentaries about the cannabis industry, for example, and attempts to lay a solid foundation of knowledge for that person to build on. “It’s important to understand (the history of the industry) before you know where it’s going,” he said. Once that person is ready to post content, another staffer must approve the post before it goes online. Iannotti said it takes about a month before the new hire can post without prior approval. When Campbell brought on a social media specialist, he did so carefully. “We had an exact outline of what we were going to accomplish, how we were going to accomplish it and a timeline,” he said. That involved a long vetting period, then the social media manager slowly started assuming more responsibili- ties, including posting to each social media account one at a time. “When they were capable of doing one, they could move on to the other,” Campbell said. “We made a strict guideline to just play it safe.” HOW TO MANAGE Burke communicates with her social media specialists daily, either by email or phone, to discuss analytics and how the posts are performing. Every two weeks, her company hosts a conference call to catch up on trends in the industry – what’s hot and what’s not – and discuss new campaigns. “We’re in constant communication,” she said. Iannotti agrees on the importance of frequent communication. He makes sure his social media manager is staying on top of social media tendencies, such as what plat- forms are trending at the moment. Sam Campbell is director of marketing at MJ Arsenal in Denver. For example, “Instagram Stories wasn’t a thing this time last year,” he said. “Now it’s everything, and it’s overtaken Snapchat.” His firm also has weekly meet- ings with the social media specialist to discuss the effectiveness of their posting strategies. Campbell communicates with his social media manager daily via Skype. “We’re guiding him on our content strategy,” he said. Campbell’s team tells the social media specialist what topics to fea- ture, for example. “He tells us when and where and how to post it in terms of optimizing it for the best time for maximum reach, optimal hashtags, optimal volume of posting,” Campbell said. “We slowly introduce new concepts over time and optimize where we can get the most reach out of the content we’re producing and sharing.” ◆ - Sam Campbell, MJ Arsenal October 2018 • Marijuana Business Magazine • 107